That's Not My Name is a gripping thriller told between dual POVS. We first meet Mary, who wakes up on the side of the road, bloody and concussed, with no memory of who she is or how she landed in such precarious circumstances. Fortunately, her father shows up at the police station after searching for her for hours and can she begin to try to fit the pieces he gives her of her life back into place. However, there are a few things that aren't adding up and don't feel right - can she really trust this man? Is she really Mary? We also meet Drew, the heartbroken and desperate teen boyfriend of a small town girl who has gone missing. He seems to be the only one convinced of his innocence, and that his girlfriend Lola is still alive. He takes matters into his own hands to bring her home when the police seem to only consider one possibility for Lola's disappearance - him.

I really, really enjoyed this story - and both POVs. I thought it was very well paced. While I had some of the inklings I had did come true, I never felt like the story was so predictable that I lost interest. On the contrary, the more I read, the fast I read! I think this was a great debut for Megan Lally and I am definitely interested in reading more from her!

There were a few things I had a hard time bending reality for, mostly with Drew & Co.'s amateur sleuthing that I found really convenient and that took me out of the story. Also, I felt like it was slightly unbelievable that the Officer that sent Mary home with her father would wait several days to "check-in" and when he does, not lay eyes on her. Overall, though, I really enjoyed reading this.

I think this is a rare thriller nowadays that paces well, has a believable unreliable narrator, and isn't entirely predictable and this hit all of those marks. 4.5/5, rounded up here.

I received an eARC of this novel via NetGalley. Thank you to SourceBooks for the opportunity to read and give my honest review.

Thank you NetGalley for my copy of That's Not My Name.

This was such a good YA thriller/mystery. It was well-written with great pacing throughout resulting in me devouring this book in less than 24 hours. I promise you will think you have this book figured out and you'll end up surprised at the end. Additionally, the alternating point of views worked so well with the storyline.

5 suspenseful stars!

This was a gripping thriller at its finest! I couldn't put it down and wanted to just power through this through 2am until the last page!

I couldn't put this book down! I was hooked from the first line, and I loved the character arcs. Excellent read!

Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks for providing an e-ARC of this novel. This will be published 1/2/2024.

For #YAlit fans of #AGoodGirlsGuidetoMurder, Karen M. McManus, and April Henry, this Pacific Northwest thriller will keep readers guessing!

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A girl wakes up in a ditch. She has no memory of who she is, how she got there, and why she is injured, but she knows something bad has happened. After the police find her and take her to the station for questioning, a man shows up and claims to be her dad. He has all her information, pictures, and her “favorite” jacket. He calls her Mary. He seems nice and caring. But is all as it seems?

Two towns over, Drew is the lead suspect in his girlfriend’s missing persons case. Lola was last seen 5 weeks ago with them, and the police have run out of all leads…except him. He knows he’s innocent, and he knows that time is running out to bring Lola home.
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I gobbled this up during my Thanksgiving break, and it was a fun thriller and very fast read! This reminded me A LOT of Girl in the White Van by April Henry mixed with A Body in the Woods, but for a slightly older audience. While the split POV narration was not seamless, it did help to build suspense and keep me guessing! I could see this being a hit with many readers!

3.5 ⭐️

I wish I could give this fifty stars! This was thrilling, pulse-pounding, twisty, gripping and so hard to put down even for a minute! By far, the best thriller I have read this year! A seventeen year old girl wakes up in a ditch with no memory of what happened or who she is. But it seems her dad is looking for her and tells her she is Mary. Drew, another young teen, is looking for his girlfriend, Lola, who went missing. The townspeople and law enforcement are convinced Drew killed her. Drew does everything in his power to look for her. Amazing suspense!
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advance copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the advance readers copy. Way too violent for me regardless of the suspenseful plot.

Solid 5 star read for me! From page one, the author keeps you intrigued and struggling to put this book down! Wonderfully descriptive with personable characters. I can't wait to be able to gift this novel to my fellow thriller loving friends!

[arc review]
Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Fire for providing an arc in exchange for an honest review.
That’s Not My Name releases December 26, 2023

A gripping five-star read from the first page.
Megan Lally set the bar high with her compulsively readable debut and I can’t wait to see what she writes next!!

In <I>That’s Not My Name</I>, there are two separate narratives at play. Are they connected in more ways than this town is willing to believe? Or are some characters so desperate for answers that they’ve deluded themselves into seeing connections where there aren’t any?

On one hand, we have a teenaged girl who came to in a ditch off the side of a road, bruised and battered, with no recollection of her life or who she is. A man claiming to be her father finds her at the police station hours later, but what really happened to her? If she was in a car accident, then where is her car? And why does it seem like her father knows nothing about her (i.e. clothing preferences and allergies)?

On the other hand, we have the perspective of a teenaged boy named Drew, whose girlfriend Lola went missing, and everyone thinks he killed her. What happened to her the night after she left Drew’s car to walk home alone?

As a seasoned reader, I thought I had a good idea where things were headed, and I was certain I knew who the girl with amnesia really was… but I was proven wrong.

The ending had me distraught! Some predictability aside, this was such a great serial killer mystery/thriller with strong writing. Lally utilized dual pov really well and it worked to her advantage.

I think if the father wanted to be more believable for a longer period of time, he needed to have a stronger and more credible story to stick with. Things didn’t add up quite early on when he said he’d take Mary on an hour and a half drive to a thrift store to get clothes that fit her, yet he told the officer that first night that their cabin was only an hour drive away from their home that’s being renovated… so wouldn’t it be quicker to drive to their home to get clothes she already owns?
The time frames between multiple characters got muddled a bit… some would say the distance from A to B would be 90 minutes, whereas others said 2.5 hours or 1 hour.
Other than that slight discrepancy, I had an enjoyable time.

Oh a good one! I cant say anything because I don’t want to give anything away but I liked this one!

Thank you to Sourcebooks Fire and NetGalley for an advance copy of this book.

A young girl wakes up in a ditch with no memory of how she got there or even her name. A man finds her at the police station claiming that she’s his daughter, so she goes home with him expecting everything to be fine. It’s not. Meanwhile, Drew is accused of hurting his girlfriend. She’s been missing for weeks, and instead of looking for her, the police are hassling him. Drew decides to take the case in his own hands and do what the police won’t: find her alive. In this debut thriller, Lally draws readers in with alternating perspectives of Drew and Mary, the young girl. This is truly a page turner, even if it does require a lot of suspension of disbelief when it comes to teen sleuthing. The twist was a bit predictable, but well revealed. Ultimately, this was a fun thriller.

This was hard to put down and reads well as an adult as well as a YA thriller. The story centers on Mary, who is a teen with amnesia, and also on Drew, whose girlfriend goes missing (and he is the top suspect).

The story goes back and forth between Drew’s and Mary’s POVs and initially seemed pretty predictable, but the author had some tricks up her sleeve. There were a couple of really good twists. The characters were well developed and I liked how the teens seemed like real people who knew when they needed help; sometimes you read unrealistic books where the teens act like adults and they didn’t in this book, which I appreciated. I really liked the end as well- it just felt very authentic to the characters.

Overall, this is a fantastic debut novel with a lot of action and well developed characters. I’d definitely recommend to both young adults and older adults who enjoy mysteries. Thanks to Netgalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This read is super fast paced, it kept me hooked from the first page to the last. I read it in one sitting, at just over 300 pages.

A girl sits in the police station with no memory of her life. When a man arrives claiming to be her dad, producing every document the sheriff requests, she learns her name is Mary. Some towns over, Lola is missing. Her boyfriend, Drew, is the main suspect.

Told in Drew & Mary’s POVs, this mystery is one to add to your TBR. This wasn’t the most complex or unique story, but it didn’t need to be. It was told well, to the point, and kept me entertained.

Thank you to the publisher for the gifted ARC

Well, that was a thrill! This book kept me guessing for a long time. Even when the mystery was revealed, the resolution felt both necessary and comforting. I can’t say I’m glad for another entry in the slew of “missing white girl” stories. Adding background characters who aren’t white girls mostly served to highlight that Lola was just such a girl. Some of the references felt like they would become dated very quickly: “Insta,” a Netflix-like channel, and so on. Regardless, this book was worth the read and will also be so for anyone who enjoys YA thrillers.

This is my new favorite of the year! The start grabs you from the beginning and doesn’t let go. From the plot to the characters, this is definitely a 5 star for me! This story is amazing!

A teenage girl wakes up in a ditch with no recollection of how she got there or who she is. When a man claiming to be her father shows up at the police station with all the necessary documentation saying that he is her father, the police let her go with this man. As the days go by odd things happen — allergic reactions that her father should’ve known about and a missing neighbor. Twists and turns, a little drawn out at times but overall 4 stars.

The cover of That’s Not My Name by Megan Lally is spooky and really sets the stage for the story.
That’s Not My Name is Megan Lally’s debut novel, and wow, it’s so good. It is an intense and heart-pounding young adult novel. There were scenes where I teared up (I don’t want to say which one as it could give the plot away) and some scenes that had my heart pounding to see what would happen.

Shivering and bruised, a teen wakes up on the side of a dirt road with no memory of how she got there. A passing officer takes her to the police station, and not long after, a frantic man arrives. He’s been searching for her for hours. He has her school ID, birth certificate, and family photos. He is her father. Her name is Mary. Or so he says.

When Lola slammed the car door and stormed off into the night, Drew thought they needed some time to cool off. Except Lola disappeared, and the sheriff, his friends, and the whole town are convinced Drew murdered his girlfriend. Forget proving his innocence; he must find her before it’s too late.

The story is written well, with good, relatable, well-developed, and believable characters. I found myself immersed in the story and could not put the book down until I found out the conclusion. Sometimes I felt frustrated with how Drew was treated, which added to the drama and his character’s development.

Overall, That's Not My Name is a very good young adult book, and I hope to read more from this author.

#NetGalley @SourcebooksFire

That's Not My Name is a solid action mystery thriller with teenage protagonists who are believeably stubborn and self-involved, a la teens everywhere. Sometimes that teenage tendency to obssess can serve a purpose - such as being totally committed to the cause of finding their missing friend. Not for younger readers; but older teens and adults who enjoy a twisty, first-person perspective thriller will not be disappointed.

This was great and so easy to fly through. Extremely hard to put down. This story features a dual POV, one in which Mary, a girl who wakes up badly injured with no memory of her life, attempts to piece her past together. The story opens with her dad picking her up from the police station and the more she tries to remember him and her past life, the more things appear to be...a little suspicious. The other POV is Drew, who is on the hunt to find his missing girlfriend. His chapters include his cousin, and his girfriend's best friend who join him on the hunt and they are quite the trio. It's very much "teen vigilantes take justice into their own hands because the adults are incompetent", but remains entertaining.
The pacing of this is amazing and there's a constant sense of impending doom. I will say, the plot was quite predictable, I was hoping for a few twists or surprises but I don't think guessing it immediately takes away from the reading experience much. It's still creepy, mysterious, and the witty writing holds it all together.
Really enjoyable overall!
Thank you to Sourcebooks Fire and NetGalley for the eARC!

Lola has disappeared after a night out with her boyfriend, which ends in an argument with her walking home. Everyone thinks Drew is responsible...even himself.

Uggghhhh This was such a good read. The tension, the suspicion, the mystery, the grief...all the feels. I knew I would like this as soon as I read the synopsis, but That's Not My Name definitely surpassed my expectations. That ending? *chef's kiss* What an impressive debut from Megan Lally. I look forward to reading more from her.

I won't say much else, as it's a few months yet from being published, but will change my review afterwards. I'll just say: read this. Read this if you enjoy thrillers, YA or not. You won't be disappointed.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Fire for the e-ARC I received in exchange for an honest review.